john brenton
09-27-2011, 1:52 PM
I had started a thread about string sizes in the musical instrument forum and ended up talking about a little project I was working on. It's entirely neander, so I figured I could post it here too to show what I've been playing around with. I've got to just suck it up and ignore the awesomeness of some of the recent projects posted.
I've made a few musical instruments before, but never tried banding, rosette or frets. I decided to give it all a shot and this is where I'm at right now after the weekend. I started last weekend and just left it for the rest of the week. I picked up the rest this last weekend, and now I'm at what is the most crucial part. Setting the strings and filing the frets down...doing a good job at that is totally experimental for me. I've never tried to actually make a quality instrument.
The body and neck are one piece, 8/4 Spanish Cedar, hollowed out with a 1.5" gouge. I cut it to general outline with my bowsaws, hewed the curves with a hewing hatchet to basic shape, then I smoothed with a drawknife and a rasp. It was pretty tricky with this soft and hairy cedar, but definitely a lot less work than a laminate sided guitar.
I'm not sure what the overall length is, but the vibrating string length is appr. 35cm, so that gives a bit of reference. The top is just some quarter oriented pine lumber from the borg...not the optimum but good for practice. Although the bookmatched pine did yield a pretty neat looking double stripe pattern. The hardwood pieces are some leftovers I had laying around. It all had to be ripped/resawed, which was nothing major with the nice weather we had.
The nut isn't glued on or anything, so it looks more caddywhompus than it is. I had made the nut and a really nice bridge from an ebony piano key, but of course I cracked the bridge as I was making the notorious "final touch". The sorry looking piece of bubinga in the picture isn't going to be the bridge, I just put it there for an idea.
I've got a reamer and about 60 pegs coming in the mail soon. I've made pegs before and I really, reeeeeeally wasn't satisfied. Maybe I'll tackle that after I get some lathe accessories for it. Right now handcrafting pegs would be too much for my patience.
I've designed unique celluloid guards for three or four instruments and they've all come out perfect...this one is just hideous. It wasn't really a craftsmanship thing as a poor design and trying to get by with a scrap thing. I tried to do something different, and looking at it now If I would have make the right side a little longer it actually would look cool. I had enough to do that too, but just didn't see it at the time. It really didn't look bad until I saw it in the picture.
It's funny how you step back and see things. The third picture is something I messed with a few minutes ago in paint while I was thinking about what went wrong. This is what I may do to try and fix the the guard.If you squint your eyes you can see how it would look. I may try my hand at an acetone splice...I'm sure it will go horribly wrong, but why not?
I was impatient, but never annoyed or frustrated because I knew I could not expect fine work. I just decided to have fun with it, take it through the steps and see where it went. I am pretty pumped about it as there are a million different instruments I'd like to make. Hopefully the next post won't have so many excuses and explanations in it, but will have some "gloatiness" going on.
I've made a few musical instruments before, but never tried banding, rosette or frets. I decided to give it all a shot and this is where I'm at right now after the weekend. I started last weekend and just left it for the rest of the week. I picked up the rest this last weekend, and now I'm at what is the most crucial part. Setting the strings and filing the frets down...doing a good job at that is totally experimental for me. I've never tried to actually make a quality instrument.
The body and neck are one piece, 8/4 Spanish Cedar, hollowed out with a 1.5" gouge. I cut it to general outline with my bowsaws, hewed the curves with a hewing hatchet to basic shape, then I smoothed with a drawknife and a rasp. It was pretty tricky with this soft and hairy cedar, but definitely a lot less work than a laminate sided guitar.
I'm not sure what the overall length is, but the vibrating string length is appr. 35cm, so that gives a bit of reference. The top is just some quarter oriented pine lumber from the borg...not the optimum but good for practice. Although the bookmatched pine did yield a pretty neat looking double stripe pattern. The hardwood pieces are some leftovers I had laying around. It all had to be ripped/resawed, which was nothing major with the nice weather we had.
The nut isn't glued on or anything, so it looks more caddywhompus than it is. I had made the nut and a really nice bridge from an ebony piano key, but of course I cracked the bridge as I was making the notorious "final touch". The sorry looking piece of bubinga in the picture isn't going to be the bridge, I just put it there for an idea.
I've got a reamer and about 60 pegs coming in the mail soon. I've made pegs before and I really, reeeeeeally wasn't satisfied. Maybe I'll tackle that after I get some lathe accessories for it. Right now handcrafting pegs would be too much for my patience.
I've designed unique celluloid guards for three or four instruments and they've all come out perfect...this one is just hideous. It wasn't really a craftsmanship thing as a poor design and trying to get by with a scrap thing. I tried to do something different, and looking at it now If I would have make the right side a little longer it actually would look cool. I had enough to do that too, but just didn't see it at the time. It really didn't look bad until I saw it in the picture.
It's funny how you step back and see things. The third picture is something I messed with a few minutes ago in paint while I was thinking about what went wrong. This is what I may do to try and fix the the guard.If you squint your eyes you can see how it would look. I may try my hand at an acetone splice...I'm sure it will go horribly wrong, but why not?
I was impatient, but never annoyed or frustrated because I knew I could not expect fine work. I just decided to have fun with it, take it through the steps and see where it went. I am pretty pumped about it as there are a million different instruments I'd like to make. Hopefully the next post won't have so many excuses and explanations in it, but will have some "gloatiness" going on.